Problems with linux and 9700pro

I have a Radeon 9700pro. Last night I attempted to install Mandrake Linux 9.0, but failed to properly do so. It seems that graphical content cannot be displayed, so I went with the text installation (If i tried normal installation, the screen just goes black and the keyboard lights flash). At one point during the install, I was asked which video card I am using, so i selected the 'Vendor | ATI | Radeon' option. The installation tested this, but the test failed. I tried a few other drivers but none worked, so I just continued the install. Now that Linux is installed, I am unable to reach KDE, Gnome, or any graphical interface. All i get is the prompt.
I am a complete newbie to linux (first time instaling, and only used it twice before). So detailed information on how to proceed would be appreciated.

OK. You've got a text prompt, so that's something. There is an official (if "unsupported" ) ATI 9700 driver somewhere, but I couldn't find it on their website.

Here's a best guess at getting something working:
1) Log in as root, then run XFree86 -configure
2) If it's successful, back up /etc/X11/XF86Config, and copy the freshly generated config to /etc/X11/XF86Config.
3) Type startx and see what happens.
3) If you get an X started, edit /etc/inittab and change the default runlevel from 3 to 5 which should give you a GUI login when you boot.

A couple of other options are as follows:
1) Edit /etc/X11/XF86Config, and try setting the driver to "radeon" or "ati" or "vesa" or
2) Reinstall from scratch and select vesa in 16 bit as the video driver. Hopefully that will be enough to get you started, but keep an eye out for the ATI Radeon 9700 driver.


<i>Knock Knock, Neo</i>

There are 2 versions on that page - one for XFree86 4.1, and another for 4.2. Get the 4.2 file, with this command:
wget http://www2.ati.com/drivers/fglrx- [...] 1.i586.rpm

Then install it with rpm:
rpm -Uvh fglrx-glc22-4.2.0-2.5.1.i586.rpm

If there are any errors, fix them by installing appropriate rpms from the Mandrake CD (or removing them). Then run fglrxconfig to set things up. The readme linked on the webpage covers it pretty well.

<i>Knock Knock, Neo</i>

Bummer. I saw something on irc.freenode.net #xfree86 channel about that card, but if you want out, you can run lilo -u to restore the old bootblock, or maybe fdisk /mbr in windows, then reformat the linux partition.

<i>Knock Knock, Neo</i>

Just a couple of questions:
1. What is the brand and chipset of your nic card
2. This may not work to get your card working, but give it a try.
3. enter "su"
4. enter password for root
5. "modprobe tulip"

Another thing, why don't you copy the following files and post them here.
/var/log/XFree86
/etc/X11/XF86Config

The first file is the log that tells us what is going with the X graphical display and the second is the XFree86 Config file